Mother Jones recently published a terrific
piece by Ian Gordon that details the story of Yewri Guillén: a young,
talented Dominican, signed by the Nationals, whose life came to a tragic end.
It's a story that every baseball fan should read, as it illustrates what can
happen when a powerful organization within an even more powerful cartel chooses
to exploit a powerless and poor youth with dreams.

Here is an excerpt:

There wasn't a certified athletic trainer, let alone a doctor, to
evaluate Guillén at the Nationals' academy, a spartan training camp with
cinder-block dorms. No one from the team accompanied him to Santo Domingo or
intervened when he couldn't get into the Clínica Abreu. (The club didn't cover
the costs of his treatment until after he was admitted to the Cuban-Dominican
clinic.) And following Guillén's death, the club required his parents to sign a
release before handing over his signing bonus and life insurance money—a
document also stating that they would never sue the team or its employees.

Guillén's death is the worst-case scenario in a recruiting system that treats young Dominicans as
second-class prospects, paying them far less than young Americans and
sometimes denying them benefits that are standard in the US minor leagues, such
as health insurance and professionally trained medical staff. MLB regulations
allow teams to troll for talent on the cheap in the Dominican Republic: Unlike
American kids, who must have completed high school to sign, Dominicans can be
signed as young as 16, when their bodies and their skills are far less
developed.

As the excerpt illustrates, the exploitation of the minor league player is most apparent in the Dominican. Of course, MLB teams have a long
history of exploiting the minor leaguer. Ever since the days of Branch Rickey's
farm system in the 1920s and 1930s--a system that at one point allowed the
Cardinals to hold the property rights to over 600 players--teams have hoarded
as many players as possible while paying them as little as possible.

For the past few decades, teams have found the Dominican (and Venezuela) to
be a source of cheap talent. Teams seemed to operate under the modus operandi
of sign them all, pay them little, and let the kids sort themselves out.
Although international signing bonuses have risen considerably since 2000,
teams continue to follow abusive labor policies, as the article—and the death
of a young prospect—demonstrates.

Yet the article fails to mention another important point: the exploitation of the minor leaguer continues in the States.

Ian Gordon's article is fabulous, but it neglects to tell the rest of the
story--the story of many minor leaguers playing in the states. Since MLB
operates under an antitrust exemption, teams can actively collude to control
the labor cost in the developmentof their prime commodity of baseball
players. Our country's antitrust laws don't apply, so this collusive exercise
of market power by the baseball cartel is legal.

Some might argue that signing bonuses make up for these low salaries, but
this is faulty logic. For instance, Gordon's article points out the difference
in signing bonuses for the Dominican signee versus the American signee. Yet his
numbers are misleading. In fact, they are inaccurate.

The article states that teams paid an average signing bonus of $232,000 to American
players in 2011. However, teams do not publish the smaller signing bonuses paid
to many American signees. In fact, most players drafted outside the top ten
rounds sign for less than $10,000. Some players, especially college seniors,
sign for as little as $1,000. Teams do not publish these figures.

Since these numbers are not reported, the data set used by Gordon was
inaccurate. And even if a complete data set did exist, the high signing bonuses
obtained by those at the very top would still skew the average signing bonus. A
truer number would require both a) a complete data set, and b) the median
instead of the mean.

This point is significant, as it demonstrates the number of players pinching
pennies while chasing a dream. I've said this before, but it's worth saying
again: minor leaguers don't expect to be compensated like orthopedic surgeons;
however, they do deserve sufficient wages to eat some meals at Applebees
instead of McDonald's, to live two per two-bedroom apartment instead of six per two-bedroom apartment, and to sleep on regular mattresses instead of air
mattresses.

Yet when it comes to developing talent, teams are still operating in the
1930s. They hoard as many players as possible for as little money as possible.
And since the antitrust laws don't apply, and since they ignore wage and hour
laws, and since minor leaguers don't have a union, their power goes unchecked.
To sum: yes, it’s true that the exploitation occurs at the grandest level in
the Dominican, but it continues on minor league fields across the America. And even
if the abusive practices are less extreme in the States, such behavior should still not be
accepted.

62 comments:

Anonymous
said...

MLBTradeRumors.com has an article today (3/18/2013) mentioning that the rule 4 draft could encompass international players as early as this June's draft. How do you think such a change would impact the exploitation of latin american players? It will eliminate many of the large signing bonuses. But, will it also force the teams to look at the latin players differently, hopefully as valuable assets versus fungible commodity?

On a different note, I recall that when the Anvil Villalona case first broke out, you had a negative opinion as to whether he should be allowed back in the US. After several years of law school, and presumably taken Criminal law, has your view soften? (assuming of course, that my recollection is correct.) What is your view today? How do you think his current teammates would react to having him around?

I have been reading your blog since your first posted, and have enjoyed your articles. This is the first time I have commented. Keep up the good work. I have high hope that my favorite team, the SF Giants will step up and do what is right with respect to minor league players' well being. However, I am not holding my breathe.

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The one thing that many people forfet is that Professional Baseball is protected by the Anti-Trust Exemption. That means that baseball does not have to follow any of the federal labor laws dealing with minimun salary or the 40 hour work weeek. So ethicly what baseball does to minor league players is terrible, but it is legal. Maybe the anti-trust exemption should be removed. Low "class A" baseball players make less than 3 dollars per hour, and the 40 hour work week is non-existant. It is closer to 60 to 70 houors per week not including travel time. At least the travel (meal) money is now $25, it ws $15 per day in the mid and late 90's.

While I understand the concerns brought up about stateside minor league pay, and on some level agree that it should be higher, this post does completely discount the employer-paid costs of health insurance, which typical minimum-wage earners do not get, and access to team doctors, team-provided meals, travel stipends, and other perks earned by those men who chose to play a game for a living.

It also ignores the point that minor leaguers (typically) have fewer skills aside from baseball than does a high school dropout who works a drive-thru for minimum wage, and the fact that baseball is nearly useless from a social-economic contribution standpoint.

Same as somebody who pursues a career in music or art, the player knows what he's getting into when he chooses a career with a very small chance at reaching the highest level and in which there is an almost unlimited number of amateur players who would love to take his spot, for free.

Minimum Wage, fine. But MLB is under no obligation to provide free health insurance, nor is it obligated to provide free food.

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